by Israeli hacker Matan Gillon, provides malicious attackers with aneasy way to use Google Desktop or other Internet-facing applications tocovertly hijack user information.

"We have made an adjustment to the product to help protect users," said Google spokesperson Sonya Boralv. She declined to provide details on the extent of the Google Desktop modifications. Boralv said users aren't required to take any action to getprotected because the changes were made "on our end" to block theremote access attack vector.According to Gillon's public advisory,which included a proof-of-concept exploit, the flaw exists on fullypatched IE browsers with default security and privacy settings.